- A bipartisan coalition of 40 AGs, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton and Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated cases of Ford v. Bandemer and Ford v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court, Nos. 19-368 and 19-369, respectively, in support of the challenged decisions of the lower courts that held that residents of a state had the right to bring personal injury suits in the same states where they were injured regardless of where the defendants were located.
- The cases arose from lawsuits that residents of Montana and Minnesota brought against Ford Motor Company alleging that its defective vehicles caused serious crashes in the residents’ home states. Ford sought to have each case dismissed, arguing that the state courts lacked jurisdiction because the vehicles were purchased in other states. The Supreme Courts of Montana and Minnesota both affirmed that courts in the plaintiffs’ home states have jurisdiction in these types of cases, and Ford appealed.
- In their brief, the AGs argue that plaintiffs should be able to seek relief in the state in which they were harmed, regardless of where the instrument of the harm was purchased. The AGs also point out that Ford’s proposed personal jurisdiction test would curtail the ability of state AGs to hold corporations accountable for harms cause within their states’ borders.